TWO SUDANS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 102, 4 May 1925, Page 2

TWO SUDANS

LAND OF GREAT DISTANCES

POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE.

I have been receiving letters with "Khartoum, Egypt," on the envelopes, and people here tell me that it is quite a common thing for them to receive correspondence so addressed from home, w.rites George Benwick. special correspondent of the "Daily Chronicle" at Khartoum. But this is not the only evidence that —in spite of the attention which has recently been directed towards the Sudan, and our long connection, by turns tragic and glorious, with tlie country —this part of the Empire is undoubtedly that about which least is popularly known. I have been astonished to note how many visitors to Egypt, think that "Sudan"*' is merely the -name of part -ii. that country—as Yorkshire is of ITiigland—and that Egypt and the Sudan are the "same thing," and are both inhabited by Egyptians. Still, apparently, we do not follow Lord Salisbury's advice to "study big maps." People who visit the Valley of the Nile Seldom learn that the Sudan is a separate country, and as unlike Egypt as England is, at one and the same time, unlike France, Germany, and China, for the Sudan is a vast laud of infinite varieties of races, languages.- customs, and. climate. Take its size first of all. It is nearly three limes bigger than Egypt and-20 times larger than England. Within its frontiers you could "have France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Norway, and Sweden, and still have a corner feft for Switzerland. Few people, too. will believe, until they "look it up," that the Sudan is almost as extensive as British India, and that its length—l3oo miles—is equal to the Black Sea, or between London and .Malta. In the second place, the Sudan is in reality two very distinct countries, which present more differences of race, language, and customs than does the Continent of Europe. The first of tho two great divisions is' the territory between the Egyptian frontier and Khartoum. It does not differ "teatly in appearance from the Nile Valley "country farther .to the north. . You see. the same landscape—desert sands, isolated croups of trees, fertility beside the Nile's water, mud villages. There the general Janguage is Arabic, and the religion -Mohammedanism. ■ Yet in that portion ol the Sudan there are differences in the inhabitants which might almost be compared to those- encountered by the traveller among the races of Western Europe. But, south of Khartoum, what an extraordinary change meets the travel--1,; f lh? ot f her S«dan ".is that enormous extent of territory" stretching from the point where • UJue and YVhi£ Nile meet away to the Ugandan frontter To go there from Egypt or the northern h f H sto e-M*"euee.a change akin to. fed lch;TnCe^ elWeen £»™pAn.id varied China There are as many differences and subdivisions in people and customs as in the Celestial Land. '■ The country has quite another appearance. Instead of desert there are forests; there are wide grasslands with great herds -of cattle and an abundance of wild animals; there are 'livers and swamps. The majority of the • people ■are jiagans,.and'savages. Their religion is a mixture of lmfgie and' '" ancestoVr' worship and. nature-worship. They." wear few clothes, and still cany spears and shields. (Even at- the Makwur Dam, 170 miles south of Khartoum, I saw Sudanese at work with their spears beside them.) There is a score of languages, differing from Arabic as Arabic does from English, and, as often as not, having no relationship. Still, the great majority of the people have not the faintest idea where England is or who the Egyptians are. Yet over all there is peace and wonderful order. Now I should like to give a few facts showing what England has done, in a very ..short space of time, for this wonderful and extraordinary country.-When Gordon went to the Sudan 85 per cent.-I of the people were" slaves. The fact that, the inhabitants were afraid to sow because' their tyrannical governors seized' the- harvests show's to- what ■ a I lamentable, state the country had fallen. .The only land that could safely be cnlti- \ vat-ed was in wild and remote spots, which alone provided some security trom slave-raiders and vicious rulers Twenty-five years ago the Sudan was still destitute. Between the early and tlie late nineties there were practically no gjiildren in the country, and'but few young peopde, to such a "condition had Jannne, slaughter and oppression reduced it,_ But, while life still remains primitive in the extreme over wide areas, we have accomplished a real piece of civilising work in the Sudan and opened the way for.steady progress. The people live m peace, under, conditions of order and justice, and the population is as a result, increasing rapidly. Taken on the whole, the people" of the Sudan have a wonderful instinct for law and order,, and those who come into con «tanfc contact with them have little that I is not good to say of them